Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

From the Los Angeles Times

Being happy has always seemed like a good idea. But now science, with research to back it up, can finally show us how to get there.

By Marnell Jameson, Special to The Times
September 8, 2008

True or false:

___ I would be happier if I made more money, found the perfect mate, lost 10 pounds or moved to a new house.

___ Happiness is genetic. You can’t change how happy you are any more than you can change how tall you are.
___ Success brings happiness.

Answers: False, false and false.

IF RECENT scientific research on happiness — and there has been quite a bit — has proved anything, it’s that happiness is not a goal. It’s a process. Although our tendency to be happy or not is partly inborn, it’s also partly within our control. And, perhaps more surprising, happiness brings success, not the other way around. Though many people think happiness is elusive, scientists have actually pinned it down and know how to get it.

For years, many in the field of psychology saw the science of happiness as an oxymoron. “We got no respect,” says Ed Diener, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, who began studying happiness in 1981. “Critics said you couldn’t study happiness because you couldn’t measure it.” In the mid-1990s, he and a few other researchers started to prove the naysayers wrong. As a result, Americans now have an abundance of consumer books, academic articles, journals and associations to help them find happiness.

“Many of us have material things and our basic needs met, so we are looking for what comes after that,” says Diener, co-author with his son, Robert Biswas-Diener, of the forthcoming “Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth.” “Materialism isn’t bad. It’s only bad if we use it to replace other things in life like meaningful work, a good marriage, kids and friends. People are recognizing that those who make money more important than love have lower levels of life satisfaction.”

In recent months, the following titles have hit bookstore shelves: “What Happy Women Know,” “The Happiness Trap,” “The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want” and “Happiness for Two.”

Christine Cardone, executive editor of psychology books for Wiley-Blackwell, whose titles include Diener’s forthcoming book, points to 2000 as the tipping point: Happiness science began to mushroom and flood society with new, positive ways of thinking. That year, Martin Seligman, then-president of the American Psychological Assn., started the positive psychology movement, which focuses on what makes people mentally healthy. That concept got out to the media, spawning more interest and research. Meanwhile, neuroscientists were discovering better ways to measure what’s going on in the brain.

“Popular interest in happiness is only one driver,” says Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Positive Psychology Center there. “The books are coming out because the science is coming out.” Academic publications have enjoyed a similar boon. Between 1980 and 1985, only 2,125 articles were published on happiness, compared with 10,553 on depression. From 2000 to 2005, the number of articles on happiness increased sixteenfold to 35,069, while articles on depression numbered 80,161. From 2006 to present, just over 2 1/2 years, a search found 27,335 articles on happiness, more than half the 53,092 found on depression.

The field of happiness also now has its own publications — the Journal of Positive Psychology and the Journal of Happiness Studies — and its own professional organization, which Diener started last year. The International Positive Psychology Assn. for academics and scholars already has 3,500 members.

The trend shows no signs of slowing. Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at UC Riverside and author of “The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” believes that’s because happiness is like the Holy Grail. “People around the world want it. If you ask people what they want for their children, they’ll say for them to be happy. It’s in our Declaration of Independence. It matters to and affects everyone.”

Among the major findings of the last decade is that the pursuit of happiness is a worthy cause, Diener says. “Happiness doesn’t just feel good. It’s good for you and for society. Happy people are more successful, have better relationships, are healthier and live longer.”

Seligman adds, “We’ve learned in 10 years that happy people are more productive at work, learn more in school, get promoted more, are more creative and are liked more.”

And if that doesn’t make you happy, here’s more happy news: Around the world, happiness is on the rise.

Beyond your genes

Great if you happen to be one of the people born happy, right? Not exactly. Another major finding is that about half of our tendency toward happiness is genetic, while the rest is controlled by the individual.

Lyubomirsky and her colleagues analyzed studies on identical twins and other research and came to the conclusion that happiness is 50% genetic, 40% intentional and 10% circumstantial. “Half of your predisposition toward happiness you can’t change,” she says. “It’s in your genes. Your circumstances — where you live, your health, your work, your marriage — can be tough to change. But most people are surprised that circumstances don’t account for as much of their happiness as they think.”

Life circumstances don’t result in sustained happiness, she said, because we adapt. That new car, promotion or house feels great at first. Then we get used to it. An old but often-cited study found lottery winners were no happier than control groups after a year. That doesn’t mean that getting out of a bad job or a terrible marriage won’t give your happiness a boost. But sustaining that good feeling requires something else: deliberate control of how you act and think. That’s the 40% intentional part that Lyubomirsky and others are most interested in.

In her research, Lyubomirsky led controlled studies to determine what behaviors positively affect happiness, and has come up with at least 12 strategies that measurably increase levels. For instance, one strategy she’s tested is the practice of gratitude. In her gratitude study, she had a group of 57 subjects express gratitude once a week in a journal. A second group of 58 expressed gratitude in a journal three times a week. And a control group of 32 did nothing. At the end of six weeks, she retested all three groups and found a significant increase in happiness in the first one. (The participants who journaled three times a week showed less change, perhaps because the exercise didn’t feel as fresh, she theorized.)

She and other researchers also recommend practicing forgiveness, savoring positive moments and becoming more involved in your church, synagogue or religious organization. “Not every strategy fits everyone,” she says. “People need to try a few to find which ones work.”

Happiness defined

Although Lyubomirsky likes to let people define happiness for themselves, clinically, she describes it as “a combination of frequent positive emotions, plus the sense that your life is good.”

Seligman, who has written several books on the subject, including the bestselling “Authentic Happiness,” says it’s the pursuit of engaging and meaningful activities. By engaging, he means being in a state of flow or “at one with the music.” You get so absorbed in what you’re doing that you lose track of time. But one person’s flow is another person’s torture. What puts you in a state of flow is usually an activity that uses your strengths and talents. It’s even better when it’s part of your work.

“Meaningful” would be using what you’re best at to serve others or to participate in a cause that’s bigger than yourself. (To find out what you’re good at, or your strengths, Seligman offers a free survey on his website, www.authentichappiness.org.)

“Your purpose doesn’t have to be giant,” says Dan Baker, a psychologist who founded the life enhancement program at Canyon Ranch in Tucson and is the author of “What Happy Women Know.” “If you’re 17, your purpose can be getting into the college of your choice. When you’re a parent, it can be getting your kids off to school safely and prepared for each day. You don’t have to adopt a Romanian orphan or build a church in Chile.”

What happiness isn’t, Diener adds, is getting everything right in your life. “A man might think, ‘If I get the right education, the right job and the right wife, I’ll be happy.’ But that’s not how it works. For instance, once basic needs are met, the effects of income on happiness get smaller and smaller. That’s because happiness lies in the way you live and look at the world.

“If you have no goal other than your personal happiness, you’ll never achieve it. If you want to be happy, pursue something else vigorously and happiness will catch up with you.”

External factors

Although happiness is largely up to the individual, new research shows that what’s going on around you — specifically how much personal freedom you have — also plays a role.

In a paper published in the July issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, lead researcher Ronald Inglehart, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, refuted the long-held belief that happiness among societies is constant. His research concluded that significant and enduring changes in happiness can occur not only for individuals, but also for entire societies.

The study, which Seligman calls the best he’s seen on happiness in five years, analyzed polls taken from 1981 to 2007 by the World Values Survey. The surveys consisted of 88 countries containing 90% of the world’s population, and measured happiness and overall life satisfaction. Among the 52 countries that completed all the surveys over the 17-year period, happiness rose in 45 of them, or 86%. In six countries, it declined, and in one (Australia), levels showed no change. Overall, happiness increased 6.8 percentage points.

Inglehart credits economic development, democratization and increasing social tolerance for the happiness bump. Economic gains that bring more food, clothing, shelter, medical care and longer life can result in a substantial increase in subjective well-being for poor societies, he says.

But once a society reaches a certain threshold, further economic growth brings only minimal gains. Among the richest societies, increases in income are only weakly linked with higher levels of subjective well-being.

While economic growth helps promote happiness for some, democratization and rising social tolerance contribute even more. Democracy provides more choice, which promotes happiness. Support for gender equality and tolerance of people who are different from oneself are also strongly linked, not just because tolerant people are happier, but because living in a tolerant society enhances everyone’s freedom, Inglehart says.

The fact that happiness and our understanding of it are on the rise bode well. “In the future, more people will understand the nature of happiness and its process,” Baker says. “They will understand that they have to take an active role if they want it.”

Apparently, more people around the world are getting that message. “It’s true,” Seligman says. “We’re happier. And more happiness in the world is a great thing.”

image:wmchu

Ikigai is culturally defined in Japanese society as a comprehensive concept describing subjective well-being. It is considered to be related to life satisfaction, self-esteem, morale, happiness as well as evaluation towards the meaning of one’s life.

image: mahesh khanna

Wow. It’s official, everybody is an expert on happiness… or at least so it seems.

 When I started this blog my objective was to generate a buzz about my project, The Mechanics of Happiness - How to Engineer a Positive Approach To Your Life, which is a series of six books addressing different aspects of our lives. Someone told me, it’s what you do if you want to make a splash, blogging - it’s web 2.0, so I did it.

The results have been somewhat piecemeal but it’s become something I enjoy doing, dare I say it’s something I find fulfilling and now a component of my own personal happiness.

I have, for many years, worked with people in the area of personal development and have become accustomed to some quite gritty exchanges. It is the way if you are in the business of dealing with some of the ogres that lurk in people’s, including my own of course, shadowier parts. So I thought it would be the case with this old interface with the world, yet it hasn’t quite worked out that way so far.

It seems that there is a huge buffet, if you Google ‘happiness blogs’, where everyone adds to the table of plenty and I can’t help but wonder if so much expertise exists why there is such an intrinsic malcontentment abroad. Is this a case of the emperor’s new clothes? Is happiness to the naughties what peace and love was to the sixties?

Don’t be shy, speak to me, I’d like to hear what you have to say.

PS The title is a classic by the Buzzcocks

image: projectarchive.net

Marina Kamenev

Feeling sad? Researchers at the University of Leicester reckon you might just be in the wrong country. According to Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at Leicester who developed the first “World Map of Happiness,” Denmark is the happiest nation in the world.

White’s research used a battery of statistical data, plus the subjective responses of 80,000 people worldwide, to map out well-being across 178 countries. Denmark and five other European countries, including Switzerland, Austria, and Iceland, came out in the top 10, while Zimbabwe and Burundi pulled up the bottom.

Not surprisingly, the countries that are happiest are those that are healthy, wealthy, and wise. “The most significant factors were health, the level of poverty, and access to basic education,” White says. Population size also plays a role. Smaller countries with greater social cohesion and a stronger sense of national identity tended to score better, while those with the largest populations fared worse. China came in No. 82, India ranked 125, and Russia was 167. The U.S. came in at 23.

IT’S SUBJECTIVE.

White’s study, to be published later this year, was developed in part as a response to the British media’s fascination with life satisfaction. A recent BBC survey concluded that 81% of Britain’s population would rather the government make them happier than richer.

Despite its often bleak weather, England ranked relatively happy at 41. “There is increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator along with measures of wealth,” White says. “We wanted to illustrate the effects of global poverty on subjective well-being to remind people that if they want to address unhappiness as an issue the need is greatest in other parts of the world.”

To produce the “Happy Map,” White dug deep. He analyzed data from a variety of sources including UNESCO, the CIA, The New Economics Foundation, and the World Health Organization. He then examined the responses of 80,000 people surveyed worldwide.

MONEY STILL COUNTS.

Good health may be the key to happiness, but money helps open the door. Wealthier countries, such as Switzerland (2) and Luxembourg (10) scored high on the index. Not surprisingly, most African countries, which have little of either; scored poorly. Zimbabwe, which has an AIDS rate of 25%, an average life expectancy of 39, and an 80% poverty rate, ranked near the bottom at 177. Meanwhile, the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis gave fellow Africans in Burundi, ranked 178, even less to smile about, despite their having a slightly lower poverty rate of 68%.

Capitalism, meanwhile, fared quite well. Free-market systems are sometimes blamed for producing unhappiness due to insecurity and competition, but the U.S. was No. 23 and all the top-ranking European countries are firmly capitalist—albeit of a social-democratic flavor.

White says the only real surprise in his findings was how low many Asian countries scored. China is 82, Japan 90, and India an unhappy 125. “These are countries that are thought as having a strong sense of collective identity, which other researchers have associated with well-being,” he says.

ARE WE HAPPY YET?

White admits that happiness is subjective. But he defends his research on the grounds that his study focused on life satisfaction rather than brief emotional states. “The frustrations of modern life, and the anxieties of the age, seem to be much less significant compared to the health, financial, and educational needs in other parts of the world.”

One of the study’s intentions was to see how Britain, given media preoccupation with well-being, fared compared to other parts of the globe. His conclusion: “The current concern with happiness levels in the U.K. may well be a case of the ‘worried well.’”

To take a tour of the world’s happiest countries, click here.

Marina Kamenev is an intern in BusinessWeek’s London bureau.

image: colpo di fulmine

NEW YORK: People who don’t think life is worth living are more likely to die within the next few years, research from Japan shows.The increased death risk was mainly due to cardiovascular disease and external causes — most commonly, suicide.

image: denis collette

What is clear, clearer than anything is that we are conditioned and programmed by what we are exposed to. Over the years, perhaps the greatest cry I have heard from individuals is that they want to change.

What makes change so difficult? It is habit, or more specifically ‘bad habits’. In reality there are no such things as bad habits or good habits, there are simply those that locate you where you want to be and those that don’t.

The older you get the more difficult it becomes. Why? Well, the saying “It’s in my blood” is actually not so far from the truth. If we consider that a human starts, as Descartes put it, as a tabla raisa or blank slate then it is going to be filled by something. Nature abhors a vacuum and will fill any empty space. This is where the element of engineering becomes critical, the prudent individual will create or engineer circumstances that are favourable to themselves or specifically to the most propitious developmental opportunity that their life can muster.

What is being referred to here is the development of habits or ways that are beneficial in a positive way. So we learn social etiquette and those things that enable us to function within society and not become an outcast or a pariah. We learn skills that enable us to ply a trade or practice a profession, which establishes a reciprocity between ourselves and the society in which we live; we become useful to society and society remunerates us.

The problem or the flaw is that we learn just about everything, from the moment we are born we take in huge amounts of data and store it away. This is all persuading upon the character that we develop and influences powerfully the person that we become. So far so good, the knotty issues arise in the development of those things that we don’t want, the so called ‘bad habits’, and eradicating or overlaying those is a tall order.

It is a tall order because each time you walk or read or write or get in a car and drive you don’t have to learn it anew, the skill or the art is stored in you, they become habitual things. The more you do something the more it is strengthened or confirmed. Doctors and psychologists use the term ‘chronic’ which describes an affliction or a disorder that becomes so established that it is no longer an occasional or arbitrary visitor but takes up permanent residence within an individual’s constitution. 

In a curious way what I am saying here is that we live our lives and become chronically programmed, hopefully in a positive and beneficial way, so that things enter our ‘blood’ and we don’t have to re-learn them every time we engage with, say, walking or reading.

The $64,000.00 question is, how do we change habits that we don’t want? How do we superimpose those things that are ‘in my blood’ with alternative programmings or habits that bring positives and benefits to our lives? I’ll address that in other postings, to follow, and, as ever, if people send individual questions and I have the time I will respond in private.   

image: netsrot

Study: Happiness Key To Healthy Life

Submitted by Piyush Diwan on Tue, 09/02/2008 - 04:58.

Yes, happiness is the key to healthy life. In a study, U.S. researchers found that people living happy and satisfied life make their future life healthier. Researchers analyzed the data collected in Australian surveys conducted in 2001 and 2004.

In these surveys, nearly 10,000 adults were asked various questions regarding satisfaction with life, happiness, presence of long-term, limiting health conditions and physical health. Researchers found that level of happiness and life satisfaction determined excellent, good or very good health.

Lead author Mohammad Siahpush of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha said, “Everything being equal, if you are happy and satisfied with your life now, you are more likely to be healthy in the future.”

Articles like this are fascinating to me, they appear regularly but never actually address what the mythic quality of happiness is or, more significantly, how to achieve it. Is this not the question you are looking for the answer to? It’s not about being told what you need but about finding out how to get it for yourself, surely?

image: azli jamal

IF…

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust youself when all men doubt you 

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk to crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much:

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!

This writing by Rudyard Kipling never fails to strike a chord with me. There’s something in my assembly about dignity, propriety and demeanour that it resonates with. I used to carry a handwritten copy of it in my wallet in the smallest, finest copperplate script I could muster. I believe that we all have something for each other, that our lives can be likened to a jigsaw puzzle and we each are the custodians of vital pieces to the emerging picture that we will all eventually become.

image: yoshiko 314

Like most things, there are two states of happiness. Those that are circumstantial and those that are induced. Circumstantial can be seen as fortuitous and not really the result of any conscious process on the part of the individual. Induced is where the individual has actually taken the time and made the effort to engineer the state at a conscious level.

Serendipity may well characterise the journey that leads to the first state. It is a state of happy chance and good fortune on the part of the individual and is, I suspect, given the nature of our contemporary world, an increasingly rare phenomenon.

Take the simplest route to induced happiness, exercise regularly and as vigorously as you can. Why? Because your body secretes endorphins which are known euphemistically as ‘happy hormones’ and raise your sense of well-being. It is a quick fix and places you in the driving seat. Try to avoid making major decisions without doing some form of exercise, whether it be a brisk walk or a full on aerobic workout at the gym.

The release of endorphins into your bloodstream will colour your critical faculties and enhance your mood generally and is far more likely to result in your decisions or meditations being positive.

 Some people love the esoteric, so here’s something for you to try for size.

Two agents, serotonin and melatonin influence us in subtle yet powerful ways. They can be seen as precursors to various states ranging from tiredness to euphoria. Psychedelic drugs, the things that hippies championed and claimed lead to altered states of perception, have been found to trigger serotonin release. Serotonin is also known as a happy hormone and is cited as a cure, among other things, for depression.

Drugs such as the psychedelics are referred to as the lazy man’s way to enlightenment. And this is true, enhanced perceptions, awareness, understandings and ‘heightened consciousness’ are accessible through the effects of the drugs. The thing is that the perceptions are soon forgotten because they are artificially triggered altered states and for most people are a meaningless splash in a pool of well-being.

In esoteric lore the pineal gland is often ascribed as the seat of the third eye, a name to describe enlightened perception. The pineal gland, a small organ at the centre of the brain, releases melatonin which also regulates serotonin secretions, this in response to varying intensities of light. Dimming light leads to sleep, brightening light leads to awakening and so on.

The antecedent to these chemical releases is the mediator tryptophan which is a naturally occurring amino acid that has to be sourced externally, the body doesn’t produce it. Various foods are rich in tryptophan, certain fruits are good sources.

Here’s where it gets really interesting. Siddhartha Gautama was meditating in his usual spot beneath a bo tree, a fig, when he received enlightenment or was awakened (became Buddha). The fig is a rich source of tryptophan and being within the emanation of the bo tree would more than likely have enhanced the process of an individual upon a conscious development journey.

When exposed to bright light, melatonin levels decrease which causes an increase in serotonin secretions. Illumination or enlightenment is the way in which an elevated level of consciousness is described, with the caveat that such a state is transcendental to language and can only be suggested or hinted at. 

Curiously the cartoon character Popeye is also, knowingly or unknowingly, a reference to the pineal gland or third eye becoming active. Popeye’s method was to transfer himself from mediocrity to superhuman by eating spinach - another of the superfoods -  which triggered a sequence of extraordinary transformations that made him temporarily invincible, capable, strong and so on.

The art for the personal developer is to be able to access these different states in a conscious and self electing way rather than to be subject to the whims and vagaries of a world beyond your control.

The study of these bits of esoterica is extremely rewarding and opens up a huge territory here for those of you who are looking for clues.

 image: smithsonian institution

The greatest source of happiness is to be able to do what you want to do. Like freedom it comes with responsibility. The hedonist’s charter wont be found here. True emancipation is found only in the fulfilment of one’s ideals or objectives.

Given that such an option exists it is important to find out what you want, then spend your life pursuing that very thing. The defining characteristics of a life well lived are the things that you elect to pursue. They must not infringe upon the integrity of others, so no scrambling to the top of the pile and never mind whose fingers you crush under heel. No expensive tastes whose bill is picked up by those with whom you engage.

You must pass almost unnoticed and try not to leave a discordant note when you do so.

Creativity is the greatest of gifts. Try to create something worthy and strive always to create something new, not new for the sake of fashion but new because we occupy a state collectively of ground already covered. Learning is the ability to assimilate the already, the ultimate objective for anyone who treats their life with some degree of respect is to find themselves in a process that is unique. To think thoughts never before thought and to do things never before done.

 Vision is a great thing, to be able to perceive things that are peripheral to the mainstream of human affairs and to not dismiss them as trivial or insignificant. It is easy to become immersed in the soap opera of daily affairs, the bills, the neighbours, the career and so on but try not to become totally submerged by it. This way is a path to dis-satisfaction.

There is a compelling case to be made for worldly success and yet an inner emptiness. Do not become the man or woman in the fast car, the big house and the never ending wardrobe who has lost the inner compass that defines the very individual that we are. Be true to your principles and if you don’t have any then make getting them a priority, be clear about what you will have and wont have in your life, what you will do and what you wont do.

 Their have existed various codes of conduct in our common heritage. The Japanese used to venerate Bushido or the way of the warrior, in Europe there was the code of chivalry to name two. Each a coda, a pedigree, a template upon which to establish a life well lived. The objective within this was to shine, to shine magnificently in the darkness and to be a pinprick of light within the murkiness of confused human dealings. This should be your objective, not to become a warrior but to have a specific mien or demeanour, an address about your life that separates you from the herd or the crowd.

What is wrong with the crowd? Nothing, they live their lives according to the vagaries of fashion, the instant gratification their undisciplined senses demand of them and they are played by the world like a fish on a line. To escape that requires a particular kind of focus, a particular and rare kind of desire, to explore the hidden continent of one’s inherent capacity for growth or development.

If these words resonate with you then good. Know you’re not alone. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter, you wont have read this far anyway.